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 Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:14 pm
Dusk, and Thorne can't sleep.
This isn't uncommon, or so says the dark crescents under his eyes, and Thorne hates it a little but he hates the nightmares even more. So he pushes a pocket coffee (or three), between his teeth and goes for a run. Chris is asleep for once, but he leaves a sticky note that says he'll be back because neither of them actually knock themselves out for more than three hours at a time, and leaves the warehouse at a run.
It doesn't take him long to meet the streets of downtown Ashdown, the back side of everything where the looming forest crushes in on the streets and parks and empty, cracked concrete parking lots. His mind is winding down, he's starting to head back when -
He thinks he sees her. Just a passing figure in the reflection of headlights of a black suburban car. But he thinks he sees her, and his feet tangle together and suddenly his run turns into a terrified sprint.
It isn't until someone else gets into his path that he jumps back between the night terror and reality - long enough to get out, "Hey, watch out - "
And the concrete rises up to greet them both in a tangle of limbs.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:55 pm
There was a problem.
Nathaniel discovered said problem approximately twelve hours after returning from - that other place - when he woke up in the middle of the night and had to go to the restroom. All it had taken was a few steps before his sleep-heavy mind had registered what he was seeing.
At least he hadn't screamed.
It was now evening, again, though it wasn't strictly speaking dark out. It was, however, just dark enough that the sun had disappeared along the horizon line and the orange-pink skies were fading to a dusky dark purpleish blue that stretched inky above his head.
"This," said Nathaniel, "is ridiculous."
He thought, maybe, it was just an indoor thing, but he was now ten minutes into his walk and it was most definitely not an indoor thing. There wasn't anyone really around to notice, except for himself, and as Nathaniel stretched out a hand in front of him, he gave a frown.
Maybe he should just go get coffee after all.
Something slammed into him unceremoniously hard, and Nathaniel's inner musings were cut to an abrupt halt as he crashed to the ground with a yell of surprise. He flailed around, swinging limbs, and was pretty sure he got an elbow to the stomach before he managed to roll away, gasping and sputtering with surprise.
One glowing, blue-green hand stretched out towards the other.
"Hey are you - oh."
Even in the dusky air, Nathaniel recognized that face, his entire body going rigid.
"Oh," he said again.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 4:12 pm
Thorne didn't move. Nathaniel got an elbow in his gut and all he did was let out an exasperated gasp of air, rolling to his side and clutching his stomach. His ribs ached, his entire body ached, and a good portion of his mind was now dedicated to the concept of vomiting what was left of breakfast onto the pavement and going to drown himself in the strongest vodka Darlene's had to offer.
His chest rose and fell in heavy, short bursts, body viciously aware of every point of assault. Corr had done a number of terrible things to him in their fight that a short hospital trip had had a fit over. On top of his bruises, the fetch ha cracked his ribs (three of them!) and the sting was a viable enough option to put stars in his eyes, so he didn't immediately recognize the fact that a glow-in-the-dark blond was crouching in front of him.
Finally catching his breath, Thorne put his forehead to the unstable ground, the coolness of the chilled concrete biting him back to reality.
"Ow," he hissed, and with a great breath, pushed himself into sitting on the concrete, his long limbs curling to his body in a criss-cross leg formation.
His eyes flicked to Nathaniel, not quite there, his voice raw and gravelly from nights of no sleep.
"God," he said, knowing that stare, "I don't know if anyone's told you but you glow. And not angelically."
He rubbed the back of his skull, the close shaved hair rucking up against his tattooed hands. He looked feral, here in the dark.
"I'm sorry for running into you, I - didn't see you." He smiled and it felt remarkably stronger than he felt on the inside, dulled by exhaustion. Sweat beaded at the corner of his ear, slipping down against his pulsing heart line. "Though I can tell you recognize me, and I don't recognize you. So for the sake of clearing the air, what sins did - " He sucked in a sharp breath, and the haunts came alive in the corner of his eyes. He stands up, steps back, stares down at Nathaniel like he's the one that committed them instead.
"What did Corr do to you that I should be apologizing for?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:56 pm
The dark hair, the blue eyes, the long limbs - Nathaniel knew them all better than he would have liked, and yet - and yet there was something slightly off about them, as though the picture given to him was a little blurry around the edges.
He sort of wondered if he'd accidentally hurt him, and then thought that if it was the person he thought it was, then that wasn't such a bad thing.
The tone of voice, when it reached him, was hoarse, and lacking all of the vulpine smoothness Nathaniel was familiar with. He sat back a little, one knee pressed to the ground and the other drawn up against his chest, his hand resting atop his knee as he watched the man with a mixture of curiosity and caution.
"Yes, thank you," said Nathaniel dryly. "I hadn't noticed the blue and green, but cheers."
The apology alone seemed to indicate a world of difference between this person and the other, because the other had not seemed capable of apologizing at all, only greed. Nathaniel did not know what had happened to the doubles after Adoelle had been killed; he and Lily had gotten their hides out of there as fast as possible, after all. He felt a twinge of guilt at leaving Algernon and Jeremiah behind, or anyone else, for that matter; but they were all capable, especially the former two; more experienced than he by a landslide and therefore more capable.
Nathaniel pushed himself slowly to his feet. His elbow felt like it had a bit of rug burn, thanks to the sidewalk, but otherwise he felt relatively unharmed. His night at the ball had left him banged up and bruised so that every waking moment Nathaniel thought he was an old man aching and creaking, but that would dissipate in time.
Hopefully.
The question wasn't entirely unexpected. Nathaniel eased out a breath, one shoulder rising and falling in a half sort of shrug, and he lifted a hand tugging at the neckline of the teeshirt until it was low enough to reveal the fading purpleish bruises around his neck.
He let go and slid both hands into the pockets of his worn jeans.
"I assume that makes you the real Alexander Thorne?" he asked carefully. "I'm Nathaniel Parrish."
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:19 pm
"It's alright," Thorne responded mildly, "I'm sure you had, but I didn't notice that I could do some strange things for weeks. I just wanted to make sure you weren't as oblivious as me."
There was a laugh there, too exhausted and shallow to be true. His eyes were dull and fettered by sleeplessness. His body quivered where he held himself still. He could feel the drench of sweat against his back, even though Forever had cursed him to smell good no matter what kind of dumpster he hauled himself out of.
He settled his hands in the pocket of the sleeveless hoodie, hooking one ankle behind the other just to remember that he could still walk. It was hard to differentiate reality from dreams now, it was hard and he kept having to convince himself it wasn't another fever induced hallucination. Something to be ripped away just as easily as the rest.
Thorne smiled at the mention of his name.
"God, so he cheated me out of an actual introduction too," Thorne retorted, his voice low and raw, "what an a*****e." There was something cruelly dark in the corner of his eye, a ghost that said he was holding his tongue on a nastier version to say out loud. He tilted his head to the side, eyes lidded.
He raised a hand to brush against the tattoos that spiraled against his neck.
"I am though, or as real as I can be anymore," Thorne responded, morbid in humor now, "It's nice to meet you, Nathaniel. I'm just sorry that you had to deal with the doppleganger first."
His jaw clicked, audible, and he looked mutinous for a moment before the exhaustion took over.
"I swear I'm a safer bet than Corr," Thorne added. "All I do is garden and talk to my cat and try to reconcile the fact that I live in a warehouse now due having my life stolen for three months. It's like identity theft, only worse."
He paused, and with a crooked smile, added, "And you can call me Thorne. It's easier, I promise."
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:36 am
"Unfortunately," said Nathaniel, glancing down at his hand and turning it over almost experimentally, "This isn't the sort of thing I can just go around not noticing. It seems to only be a thing late at night, or maybe it's just because of the darkness, though."
Alexander Thorne - the real Alexander Thorne - looked more than a little worse for the wear; the lazy confidence his double had expressed was found nowhere that Nathaniel could see. What he did see was exhaustion and rattled nerves and something else, something that lay beneath the surface that he couldn't discern, because he did not know enough about this man to guess. But if he really had been kept at bay by the Madame Melany for the last several months, then he had reason to be on edge.
Nathaniel watched him shift, the sharp, angular movements almost jittery, the voice that spoke on the precipice of anger, although Nathaniel wasn't entirely sure it was due to him at all. At least, he hoped not, his stance deliberately relaxed and casual, a stray breeze ruffling through their hair.
"It's all right," he said, after a moment's pause. "I mean, I'm here now. Other than almost getting eaten a few times and being thrown into a wall, getting into a fight with your double was probably lower on the list of things that I could be concerned about."
Besides the whole strangling thing. Nathaniel's attention was caught by what Alexander - Thorne - was saying.
"Anyone who gardens and has a cat can't be as messed up as a double," he said, making this decision on the spot, because he was relatively sure that it was true. "I happen to enjoy both of those things as well, except for the whole cat thing, since I don't have a cat."
Nathaniel was silent for a moment, and then he said cautiously,
"Are you all right?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 11:29 am
"Unfortunately," Thorne echoes. He doesn't laugh, but the corner of his mouth curves. "Ashdown grants strange things to strange people. At least you'll be easy to find."
He ran a hand through his hair, untangling some of the knots that had come from his run. It was longer now, the previously buzzed sides thicker with curling locks. They tipped over his ears, midnight hues, and his eyes flicked to Nathaniel again as he dropped the gesture and sighed.
"Welcome to Ashdown," he responds, deadly and low, the dark humor coiling in his tone. "I cannot promise you'll ever get used to it. But hopefully you'll learn to adapt. It doesn't get better."
Werewolves, nobles, courts, and now this. Now the in-between. Now the wait.
"Oh, really?" Thorne remarks, and smiles. "I imagine you'll find one eventually. Ashdown is crawling with them. As for the gardening - " his eyes light, more than they had before. There's a sudden sharpness of intrigue there, like Nathaniel has somehow woken him up from slumber. "Good. I have a small army of plants. If you ever need something to do, they'd love the company."
Thorne blinks and realizes that he is reliving a memory in Other Ashdown. He'd made a small army of friends with the plant otherbeings there. His non-sentient comparison here is no less pleasing... but a sudden tilt in his stomach makes him blink, realizing with surprise that he misses them. Misses Noeh.
The question catches him off guard. It's like the first punch someone had ever landed on him, quick and darting, not enough to sting, but he is winded by it either way.
Maybe Nathaniel can see it. If he looks, he can see the fracture lines. But as quickly as Thorne shatters, he has rebuilt. His shoulders roll back, his chin tilts, and he is a lord, a king, something not quite human. Other Ashdown has changed him. A question: for the better? An answer: that depends on who you ask.
"No," Thorne says, his voice low and rolling, the sound like thunder, like a distant brewing storm. "She's alive, and even if she wasn't, I - " he cuts off, considers. "There are things you don't come back from. I'll pick myself back up. But I'm not alright."
He tilts his head again, the other way.
His eyes find Nathaniel.
"Are you?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 5:45 pm
"True," Nathaniel conceded, "This is true. It just means that I can't sneak around, I'll be spotted in an instant. My future career as a bank robber just went down the drain, but I suppose I could take up the circus. Or maybe a fill-in lamp post."
He intended it to be lighthearted, but something about Thorne's words were echoing in his ears.
Ashdown grants strange things to strange people.
Nathaniel hadn't ever really thought of himself as strange; dull, more like it, or maybe just quiet. Strange, maybe, because of his family, but even then, having less-than-satisfactory parents was more of a commonality these days and not so much a reason for suddenly glowing in the dark.
Still. It was a strange statement.
"Thank you," said Nathaniel, because it seemed like both the right response and the wrong at the same time. "Luckily for me, adapting to odd and new situations is a habit of mine."
Maybe not a good habit, but a habit nonetheless. Nathaniel felt the wistful longing for a pet or some sort of companion tugging at his stomach more than ever, but it was Thorne's brightening eyes and interest in his gardening abilities that made the corners of his lips tug upwards in a smile.
"I'd love to be in their company," he said truthfully. "Plants are about the only thing I'm apparently capable of caring for, so I'd be glad to take care of them for you if ever you need anyone to. I'm not all that well versed in anything unusual, but as long as you don't have any Devil's Snare lying around, we should be goo."
He could sense the change in Thorne's demeanor, though he couldn't understand it. Alexander Thorne was an enigma, a confusion, a ball of emotions and experiences that Nathaniel had no insight on, other than the fact that he seemed exhausted in one way or another.
His brow furrowed. "Who's alive?"
Though he thought, strangely, that he already knew.
Are you?
It was a simple question. There was no simple answer to it.
"I suppose not," said Nathaniel, after a long moment of consideration. "It would be better if I understood everything that happened, but since I don't, that makes me not okay. But who knows? Maybe being all right is overrated, anyway."
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 11:48 am
"What a tragedy," Thorne remarked, his voice low and raw, "I'm sure you would be quite the star at the circus, but then someone might miss you back home."
He slid his hand from his neck, readjusting himself. Even burned out to cinders here in the night, he still cut an impressive figure. Corr had turned his body into nothing but angles and sharp edges. He had turned all of Thorne's warning colors outwards, a warning bell of a bite if a wandering hand came to close. But Thorne was the opposite. He was a vessel barely wrapped around the sharp edges pointed inwards now.
Unknowable, where his opposite had wanted to be known.
"Then you're lucky," Thorne remarked, dryly. "If you think being a fill-in lamp post is the most pressing matter here, you'll quickly find you're mistaken."
His smile brightened a little bit at the comment on plants and gardening. At least if he ever needed an extra gardener, he knew where to look. His head tilted at Nathaniel, mild and appraising, the sharp shrapnel in the corner of his eyes still blazing and exposed.
"I'd rather not have any Devil's Snare, my cat would immediately get into a fight with it and that's just no good for anyone," Thorne remarked, "though I'm not entirely sure that I can promise none of them have minds of their own." Particularly with Chris's green thumb, Thorne couldn't help thinking in amusement, but he swallowed that comment and added, "All you'll really have to look out for are the cats. They'll climb all over you."
Thorne's head tilted and again there was that snap - that recoil, between the easy gentility of him in conversation over plants and cats and trivial things and - this.
Mother, he wanted to say.
"The Spinel Lady." Thorne's voice was soft and cool around the words. He held them like holding glass between his teeth. "Melany."
He shook out his head and spread one hand in front of him, fingers splayed, tattoos a sharp dark curve against his forearm, the blooming flowers beneath nearly wicked.
"No one understands everything in this place," he said. "I think you'd be coveted if you did. The only advice I would offer is towards trying not to die - but unfortunately, Ashdown has taught us that death isn't necessarily what we need to fear the most."
His smile curved.
"At least, not anymore."
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 9:54 am
He wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not, Nathaniel watching Thorne with a sort of quiet wariness. A part of him wanted to ask, but another part of him wasn't entirely sure that any more intrusive questions would be tolerated by a man who looked like he was cut from glass.
Instead, he gave a calm laugh and said, "I highly doubt being a lamppost is anything new or strange around here. In fact, compared to all that happened that night, I figure I have it downright pleasant."
He didn't quail under Thorne's sharp-eyed look, though it made him cautious. Nathaniel didn't know what had happened to the real people while their doubles had taken over their lives, but he assumed it had not been pleasant, judging by the intensity by which Thorne spoke. Maybe it had gone far enough to break something, though he knew none of them well enough to make any judgements at all.
He was still new; and still, painfully, frustratingly unaware of so much.
"I'm very much all right with cats," said Nathaniel, smiling. "And I like to think most plants have a mind of their own, anyway."
He was right, then; that the person whom Thorne spoke of had been the one person that Nathaniel, morbidly, had wished gone. If Melany was alive, then there was a great deal more danger still than he had thought, which made Nathaniel feel all the more useless and ignorant. He caught the warning in Thorne's voice and raised his eyebrows.
"No, I suppose not," he said, after a moment. "I suppose there are other things more violently fearful than death."
His eyes flickered across the man's face, traveled down the tattoos on each arm, dragged over the sharp lines of his face. Nathaniel slid his hands back into his pockets, the glowing blue and green still emanating faintly through the fabric, which was mildly annoying.
"Is she still in that other place?" he asked. "Melany, I mean. Are you safer out here?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 3:42 pm
"Perhaps," Thorne drawled in return with a low curl of laughter. It was warm and pleasant, fractured but there. "Compared to the Court, being a lamp-post would be simply enjoyable."
He ran a hand against the back of his neck. Slid it down to rest at his side. The night chill was setting in now. His breath fogged the air as he spoke. The shadows whispered loudly at him to come and take a look. He ignored them petulantly. The last time he'd tried it, he'd had a headache for hours.
"They do," Thorne remarked. "You'll have to meet mine. They grow everywhere they're not supposed to."
He sighed at the change in conversation, but he still seemed cracked open. Closely invested in this conversation with Nathaniel. He hadn't fluttered through the strangeness of new meetings in a long time, and it was made even worse by the fact that Nathaniel had met his double before him.
If he'd been worried once about people judging him for mundane things like his tattoos, now he had a new reason to be worried that was entirely unrelated.
"She took me from this place, you know," Thorne said, easily. "You really think she dragged me by force into Other Ashdown to do the job?"
His smile was fractured.
"I'm not safe. None of us are. Someone let her live, let her out." He paused and added, "I was better, once. I wish you had met me back then. But she's here, and she made us to be what she wanted. Monsters, maybe, if you'd like to be poetic about it."
He looked up at the sky, the faded stars and the broken visage of far away storm clouds.
"You'll quickly find that our rules don't apply to that other world," he added. "Who knows what will happen now?"
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Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 4:46 pm
"I don't doubt that," came the mild answer, the corners of Nathaniel's lips slanting up slightly in a smile. "A lamppost would at least be able to be sort of a guiding force, wouldn't you say? Like in Narnia, except without all of the snow and wardrobes."
He couldn't tell if Thorne's movements were restless or just a part of his nature. Each one seemed sharper, or perhaps stiff, or maybe jolting; not smooth, or charismatic like his double had been, but unthinking in gesture, much more human than his counterpart. And in spite of Nathaniel not being able to read this Thorne much, he did find him easier to speak to than Corr.
And less dangerous.
Maybe.
"I would very much like to meet your plants," said Nathaniel, the truth of this ringing in the eagerness of his voice. "Mine are all kept very carefully and tamely, it'd be nice to see something a little wilder and a little...freer, I guess you could say."
The question-that-wasn't-a-question gave him pause. Nathaniel thought it might have been because Thorne was implying he had gone willingly with Melany, which...well, it wouldn't have been all that unheard of, if she had been clever about it. The right set of words and the right smile could ease anyone into coming along.
Nathaniel's brows rose again.
"You really believe yourself to be a monster?" he asked. "Because I wouldn't have pegged you for the sort. Your double, maybe. He was a piece of work, yeah, but you aren't anything like him. I mean, you haven't tried to strangle me or call me pathetic yet," Nathaniel added thoughtfully. "Though since this is our first meeting, maybe I should just give it time."
His voice was deliberately light, almost teasing.
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:00 pm
Thorne exhaled sharply and laughed. It was a wicked sound, but warmer, different from Corr's. They had been two sides of a coin, caught mid-motion. Thorne shook his head.
"A beacon, more like," he responded, "Perhaps you can file all the lost boys back home when Other Ashdown comes around to play again."
He shifted again, rolling onto the heel of his feet and back down again with leisure. The more he spoke, the easier it became, like unwinding a coil of tightly woven string from a spool. There was still a shadow, still something burning in him brightly, too bright to be gentle, but he became more of - something, with every word.
"Oh, you will if you want, we can swap numbers," Thorne responded easily, running a hand through his hair, "Coalsmoke is a place full of chaos. The ivies especially have a mind of their own." He thought of Heddy, and the smile he had on his face went fond.
"And maybe I can help you - you know, if you want to know more about this world you've gotten yourself into." He sighed out. "I know it's difficult to digest. Some of us still haven't."
He shook his head, recrossing his arms, running one of his fingers against a trail of thorns up the side of his arm.
"What I am might not be a monster," Thorne responded, low and sharp and raw, "But there is a divide between who I am, what I was, and what you are too. Corr was a double because he failed centuries ago to rise. Corr was a monster because when it came down to strength of will, he had given up."
He pauses, breathing out. "But there are plenty of different monsters here," he said gently, "the world is full of them. I am not like you, and I'll never pretend to be."
He chuckled though, the tease returning to his voice.
"I promise though, I won't choke you or call you pathetic. That seems terribly rude, and I'd rather you not kill all of my plants in retribution."
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Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 6:17 am
Nathaniel couldn't help the smile that pulled at his lips this time.
"I'll be the Tinkerbell to their Lost Boys," he said, with deliberate over grandness, waving a glowing blue-green hand in the air dramatically. "Except minus the snippy attitude and the green tunic, I don't think I'd look good in a miniskirt."
Thorne seemed to be - well, maybe relaxing wasn't the best word for it. But he seemed to be doing a little better, the longer they talked. Nathaniel wasn't sure why that was, but he wasn't about to complain, digging into his pocket for his cell.
"Is Coalsmoke your home, then?" Nathaniel asked, flipping the ancient phone open and thumbing through the buttons until the new contact screen popped up. He held it out towards Thorne, ignoring the automatic flush of embarrassment that he didn't have anything fancier. The almost affectionate look on Thorne's face now relaxed his features, eased his sharpness.
"I'd appreciate all the help, to be honest," Nathaniel said lightly, except the warmth was gone now from the other's voice, harsh words spoken from a fractured man. He'd pushed the wrong button; he knew perfectly well that he was nothing like Thorne and never would be.
You are not one of them.
You do not belong.
You are nothing.
He let his shoulders rise and fall in a casual shrug, and Nathaniel smiled slightly. "I'd never kill any plants, retribution or otherwise," he said delicately. "They haven't done anything, after all. But I'd like to see your ivies one day, even if you aren't anything like me. Or vice versa, whichever it was."
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Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 10:12 pm
Thorne chuckled at the metaphor, amused by the others strange ways. He felt like he was prodding at a mask, imperfect surely, but well structured all the same. There was a deliberate calm Nathaniel kept. It was like shouting down a tunnel, or trying to speak across a ley-line with no visual line of sight.
He was unreadable, Nathaniel.
But Thorne wondered if that was only because they'd just met.
His eyes lowered to his hands and flickered back up again.
"Coalsmoke is where I live," Thorne said mildly. "It will be very easy to find once you know where to go. And very hard to miss, if you know what you're looking for." His hands folded around Nathaniel's phone with ease, and he typed in his number and contact information, handing it back to the blond. IN another moment, he had his own phone out, a scarred galaxy note, and handed it to Nathaniel.
"I'm always around if you need something," Thorne said. "Though sometimes you might have to find me in Other Ashdown, depending on what terrible new thing is happening."
He shook his head out, exhaling softly.
"That's good, sounds like I can trust you," Thorne mused, a grin half on his face, "The ivies are the fun ones. Chris might even come around to help."
He waved one hand, stepping back once he received his phone again.
"It was nice to meet you properly for once, Nathaniel," he said with a crooked smile, "I'll see you around, yeah?"kuropeco can probably wrap on your post if you want? >V<
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